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Monday, April 8, 2013

Seeno responds to allegations in Nevada lawsuit

Seeno responds to allegations in Nevada lawsuit

Developer: No effect on Benicia property
By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter


Lawsuits related to a dispute between Albert Seeno Jr., his brother Thomas and their former Nevada business partner, F. Harvey Whittemore, won’t affect any plans for a large Benicia parcel owned by the Seeno family, Seeno Jr. said Thursday.

In a letter to The Benicia Herald, Seeno wrote, “Please be advised that the current issues with respect to our former business partner in Nevada will have no impact, financial or otherwise, on any potential development plans we may have in Benicia or any of our California or Nevada homebuilding operations.”


Wingfield Nevada Group Holding Company, Tuffy Ranch properties and the Foothills at Wingfield — three Seeno-interest Nevada companies — filed suit Jan. 27 in Clark County, Nev., Business Court, accusing Whittemore, a Nevada attorney and businessman, and his wife, Annette, of misappropriating millions of dollars.
The suit said the Seenos noticed discrepancies in financial records about May 2010, and started an investigation.
That suit said Whittemore confessed to several years’ worth of theft, diversion of funds, asset misappropriation and breach of fiduciary duties, particularly money caretaking; as well as using company funds for unauthorized personal matters and for political donations to Whittemore’s advantage; embezzlement; and misuse of company assets.

“The egregious acts of Whittemore as alleged in this Complaint have cost Wingfield, its affiliates, and the Seenos tens of millions of dollars,” the suit said.
The Whittemores responded Feb. 1 with a suit of their own filed in the U.S. District Court of Nevada, accusing Albert Seeno Jr., Thomas Seeno and Albert Seeno III of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy to defraud the Whittemores and the federal government and breach of contract.

Their suit said they are owed about $30 million by the Wingfield Nevada Group, and that their family has been damaged in excess of $60 million.
The suit also said Seeno has falsely accused the Whittemores of embezzlement and other criminal activity, and forced the Whittemores out of the Wingfield Nevada Group.

“For over a full year now, the Whittemores have been living under the threat of death, serious bodily injury and/or criminal and civil prosecution because of actions threatened by the Seenos,” the suit said.

Both suits have requested trials by jury.

In his letter to The Herald on Thursday, Seeno Jr. responded, “The malicious claims that have been made from our former partner in a highly sensationalized lawsuit and reported to the press are blatantly untrue and offensive.

“This is an attempt by a desperate man to divert attention away from the prior lawsuit filed against him for embezzlement of company funds and his personal misdeeds. It is nothing more than a press release in the form of a lawsuit.

“When the time is right in Benicia, we hope to work with the staff to develop a project that will make economic sense and be a proud addition to the city of Benicia.”

The Seenos are a family of developers. The late Albert Seeno Sr., the son of an immigrant fisherman, died last year at 84; he started the Albert D. Seeno Construction Company in 1938. It has built homes, apartments and commercial centers around the Bay Area.

Two of his sons, Albert Jr. and Tom Seeno, took over that business when their father began transitioning into retirement. While Seeno Jr.’s letter said the Nevada lawsuits won’t affect plans for the local property, there are no plans currently filed at City Hall for any development on the Seeno parcel on Benicia’s north side.
In a letter sent June 29, 2010, to then-City Manager Jim Erickson, Seeno Jr. announced he was withdrawing the applications originally filed in 2005 for a business park he and his son, Seeno III, had proposed for 285 acres of their 527-acre parcel by Lake Herman Road.

That withdrawal came after years of meetings and discussions about the project, including the imposition of about 200 conditions placed on the project in a 2009 City Council resolution to which Seeno had agreed to keep the project alive.

Seeno’s announcement came a few days before the Council was considering terminating the application, citing difficulties in communicating with the developer.

At its June 1, 2010 meeting, the Council said Seeno needed to support city-initiated planning processes that includes his property, and that he should propose a solution to Benicia’s loss of impact fees that have increased during the past five years. Those were some of the conditions of the application’s April 6 extension.

The extension also required the applicant to give the Council semi-annual updates.In a reply to the city’s action dated May 6, 2010, Seeno III promised the progress reports, but the Council decided that was the only issue his letter addressed.

Seeno III said in that letter the delay in developing the park didn’t alter the impact fees imposed on the project, and that it “would be a waste of state taxpayer resources” to embark on design or planning procedures until the economy starts improving. Seeno said there might be alternative uses for the land.
But in a June 29, 2010 letter, Seeno Jr. accused Mayor Elizabeth Patterson of “slanderous comments about me and my family on the public record,” adding that “they certainly make me question why I or anyone else would consider proceeding with a development project in the city of Benicia.”

Once the letter was received, Patterson questioned its timing and the withdrawal of the Benicia Business Park Master Plan and Vesting Tentative Map applications. She said the timing was related to the 2011 city elections, when she would be running for re-election. “They don’t want a strong mayor who stands up to Seeno. They don’t want a mayor who insists on protecting the hills, air and water, and avoiding big-time traffic increases. And they don’t want a mayor who asks for assurances in writing.” Patterson, who was opposed by then-Vice Mayor Alan Schwartzman in the 2011 race, won re-election, and Schwartzman returned to the Council to complete his current term.

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